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December 2021 December 2021

to Covid, help in updating the Electoral Register, reporting road defects and Grandad He’d roll the dice and meet the cost,
issues with rights of ways. To gain a precious thing he’d lost.
If nothing more, the cud I chew. No stone he’d leave unturned to give,
Adult Social Care Budget 2021/22 As I do the job I do, His children, what they’d need to live.
I ruminate on what must be,
Dorset Council faces a higher level of demand for older people's social care He’d work his fingers to the bone.
services than many other areas, which places significant pressure on the council’s With the cards, which have been dealt He would spend his days alone,
budget. We continue to lobby the Dorset MPs on a range of issues, in particular to me.
the funding crisis faced by Local Government in our health and social care I strive to play them, as best I can, If that was for his family’s sake.
system. So that I become the sort of man, There’d be no risk he would not take,
This year Dorset Council is To whom, my grandad could relate. But most of all he’d fight and fight,
predicting an increase in In him, I saw no evidence of bitterness or And fight and fight, to have the right,
the gross cost of care hate. To be the father he chose to be,
services paid for by the And to become the grandad he was
council of 7% or £10.3m. This There was no gentler soul on earth. to me.
increase is due to a No other man could match his worth.
combination of more Paul J Openshaw (Spring 1995)
people needing care, and What would he do, if faced to choose,
an increase in the unit costs Between the chance to win or lose?
of care charged by
providers to the council. The
recent announcement by My life is music, music is my life;
the Government of an My Life is Music My life is happy all day long –
increase in National Insurance to help the NHS recover after the pandemic and to
fund social care in England is welcome, but we urgently need to understand the My life is music, music is my life: And you could find this happiness
detail of the conditions under which money will come to Local Authorities. We My life is singing and harmony. If you just learn to sing a song.
also need to ensure that the very welcome guarantees being given to our The gods have given me music –
residents on the cap on social care costs are matched by monies passed to Music is my destiny. Eileen Richardson
councils so that we are not left short.

My life’s a rainbow – bright with every
Library Consultation hue;
Full of colour and melody.
Dorset Council has launched a public consultation to inform how they develop
and deliver their library service in the future. Library users and non-users are being My life’s an opus, a prelude,
asked to share their views. The consultation runs from 25 October 2021 to 7 An unfinished symphony.
January 2022 and is available online. Libraries are at the heart of Dorset’s
communities and provide highly valued services, including book lending, activities Sometimes life sets me a problem
and events, reading groups, skills and learning, health and wellbeing, information And I don’t know what’s right and
provision, digital access and support, and art and cultural exhibitions. People of all what’s wrong:
ages can enjoy all of this and more, within a safe and welcoming But I find the answer comes winging in
environment. There are 23 council-run and eight community-managed libraries in
the Dorset Council area. The current library strategy is 11 years old. Over those 11 As soon as I start to sing a song.
years, there have been significant changes in public behaviour and digital

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